Rustic and Distressed, finally

I have always wanted to try distressing my furniture but never have the heart to take sandpaper to fresh paint job. But finally I found the right project to try it on. I found these little end tables at Goodwill for $8. For the pair! I was pretty excited about that.

I love finding little pieces to work on since painting dressers no longer works for me. I have two carseats in my backseat and can't flip down one side to accommodate bigger stuff.

When I first saw these tables I knew I finally had a project to use a little sample of black paint that I bought a loooong time ago. This is the look I had in mind.

The tops got a good sanding
and then a beating for some
extra rustic factor and then
stained Minwax's Chestnut
in a gel stain. I know a lot of
other bloggers seem to love
the gel stains but I was not
impressed. The black satin
paint finish looked fantastic but I was still determined to try the distressing.

I just started sanding where I thought it would look natural and tried not to get too carried away. I also applied a little bit of stain over the sanded parts for more of an aged look.

The final look is something I'm really happy with. I might even consider keeping them

I imagined the Minwax Chestnut gel stain to be much darker. How did you achieve the light look of it? Did you do only one coat, or did you go over it with steel wool before finishing? It looks awesome!